


Heroes

by Superstitious



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Boys In Love, Character Death, Established Relationship, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Harley Keener as Iron Lad, Heavy Angst, Hurt Harley Keener, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurts So Good, Idiots in Love, M/M, Major Character Injury, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Harley Keener, Whump, no-win scenarios
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 20:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20588384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superstitious/pseuds/Superstitious
Summary: “I couldn’t watch you die."“Then you should have closed your eyes.”Peter and Harley find themselves in a no-win scenario as they attempt to save the world (again).





	Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Unapologetic angst.
> 
> First time writing major character death. Think it turned out pretty okay. Dialogue prompt courtesy of @creativepromptsforwriting on Tumblr. Also, this is fiction so nothing is historically or culturally accurate (sorry).
> 
> Suggested listening:  
\- Heroes by Peter Gabriel  
\- I Will Return by Skylar Grey  
\- Make You Feel My Love by Adele  
\- Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi

Harley was exactly where he was supposed to be: crouched behind stone hundreds of feet above the ground. From his position, he could faintly hear the sounds of the city as they leaked in from a sewer grate. Slivers of moonlight slipped in as well, the only reminder to Harley that life existed above them. The full moon eons away ensured a faint illumination of his surroundings.

In the grimy sewers miles below New York City, only darkness lived.

Water dripped onto Harley’s face. He wiped the droplets away and reactivated the helmet on his Ironlad suit to utilize its night vision, knowing all too well that it would drain what little power he had left. The arc reactor was heavily damaged from their earlier encounter with the Eternal One. After Spider-Man and Ironlad failed to foil the sorceresses’ attempt to steal the Blade of Jade from where it sat on exhibition at The Met, the duo chased her straight into the underground. 

Harley watched Peter as he crept towards the Eternal One in his stealth suit, blackness blending in with the darkness around them. So far, their plan had worked perfectly. The Eternal One was preoccupied with her ritual and none-the-wiser to the heroes’ presence. She moved through the ceremony fluidly, body bending like a willow tree in the breeze while she slashed her katana, the Blade of Jade, through the air. Harley almost got lost in the movements himself. The melodies her blade sang as it sliced through air cut through the silence of the sewers.

“FRIDAY, time check.”

“Harley, you only have twenty minutes left until midnight. You need to hurry.” FRIDAY’s accent filled his ears and slowly brought him out of his daze.

If the Eternal One completed her ritual by midnight (_why was it always midnight?_), she would be able to open the portal between Earth and Kitoyota’s ethereal plane permanently, wreaking havoc on the world.

The calmness of the night shifted when the Eternal One abruptly stopped her dance, thrusting the katana behind her faster than Harley could blink. Her speed was inhuman and he could only watch in horror when she caught Peter by surprise, his cry of pain reverberating throughout the vaulted ceilings. Harley remained frozen as the sorceress withdrew her blade from Peter’s shoulder.

His Spider senses had ensured that the blow missed Peter’s heart, but couldn’t avoid it completely. The sorceress drew him forward with a clawed hand, bringing Peter out of the shadows and into the dim moonlight. The Eternal One hissed and tightened her grip on Peter’s wounded shoulder, sharpened nails digging into the stab wound. His face contorted in pain but no sound escaped Peter’s lips this time.

The Eternal One’s expression morphed from serenity to anger as she looked at Peter. With a well-aimed kick, the sorceress swiftly broke his left leg. His scream of pain was mixed with the sickening crunch of breaking bone.

“You cannot stop destiny.” The sorceress’ voice was omnipresent, seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once.

The Eternal One threw Peter to the ground and raised her katana, prepared to deliver a killing blow. A blow that would never come, since Harley already had his plan to save Peter in motion. While the Eternal One had her back to Harley in his position from above, attention solely on Peter, he launched his attack. 

Peter’s cries of agony masked Harley’s split second movements as his metal suit grated against stone. He jumped from the ledge and shot off energy blasts as the sorceress turned to face him. Harley engaged his thrusters at the last second before he hit the ground to scoop Peter up and away from danger.

“FRIDAY, how much power do I have left?” Harley’s voice was calm but his heart was racketing out of his chest.

“Four percent.”

The Eternal One screamed, a gaping hole in her stomach from the energy blast. While she was distracted Harley gently set Peter down, noting the man had briefly passed out from pain. Super-healing was bound to wake him up any moment.

“You will pay for that with blood, child.”

Harley turned to face the Eternal One as he moved towards the other side of the catacomb like tomb, making sure her attention was away from Peter’s unconscious form. The hole in the sorceress’ stomach was slowly closing as the skin mended itself back together before Harley’s eyes. He briefly wondered if that was what Peter’s leg looked like right now. 

“You cannot kill an immortal,” the Eternal One continued as she taunted Harley. The two started slowly circling each other.

Eyes flitting from the katana in the Eternal One’s hand to the embroidered silk pouch fastened to the blood red sash around her waist, Harley doubted himself for the first time. Within that pouch was the Eternal One’s heart and the only way to end this for good. Harley had seen her swordsmanship and FRIDAY analyzed fight patterns. Coupled with rapid healing, Ironlad’s weakened armor didn’t stand a chance in solo combat.

By now, the sorceress was fully sewn back together and eyed Harley like a predator sizing up its prey. He briefly checked the status of his outgoing message to the Avengers. The Ironlad suit had sustained heavy damage and the sewers were too far below ground; his message wasn’t going through. Harley could only hope Tony had gone back to his and Peter’s lab in the Tower and saw the coordinates on Harley’s desktop.

Movement behind Harley brought him out of his musings as Peter regained consciousness. The Eternal One advanced and Harley’s heart rate sped up again. He had to do something and do it fast, otherwise neither of them were making it out of the underground tonight. In his condition, Peter would never survive against the Eternal One if something happened to Ironlad.

Once again, Harley Keener held the fate of the world in his hands.

Harley dropped into a fighting stance as the Eternal One mimicked him, crouching low with her katana poised for combat. They were out of options and out of time as the clock neared midnight.

“Tick tick, tick tock,” A finger wagged teasingly at Harley as the sorceress’ face distorted into a cruel smile.

An imaginary thread snapped and they both moved at once. Harley gave it everything he had, pulling out every trick in the book in an attempt to subdue the sorceress. His blasts hit their mark, but between her rapid healing and inhuman speed it was impossible to land a debilitating blow. Harley shifted his focus to keeping her back and away from Peter, eyes never leaving the swaying pouch at her side and lethal weapon in her hand.

In a dire miscalculation, Harley’s concentration faltered. The Eternal One’s blade dealt a glancing blow to his side before it was wrenched from her hands by webbing. Harley’s head snapped towards Peter’s direction and he fell to his knees, right hand flying up to staunch the wound at his side. The katana had sliced cleanly through Harley’s armor, but the wound wasn’t deep. 

Peter was standing with a pronounced limp, but still looked more than capable. He held the Blade of Jade in his hands and flickered a glance towards Harley before shakily dropping into a fighting stance, challenging the Eternal One. Harley regained his footing and advanced towards the sorceress from behind, arms outstretched and blasters at the ready. He was starting to feel a little hopeful at the turn of events.

“Harley you have two minutes until midnight!” FRIDAY’s voice filled his ears.

If they could just keep her distracted a little longer and separated from her katana, the battle could still be won.

“I tire of you children. Soon the army of Kitoyota will be before you all.” The Eternal One flicked her wrist and the katana wrenched itself from Peter’s grip. He looked stunned as the sorceress caught the blade in midair.

“No!” Harley shouted as she advanced towards Peter.

They were running out of time and options. There was only one trick left up both their sleeve's: the agreed upon last resort. Peter took a step back and glanced at Harley over the shoulder of the Eternal One, expression resigned to death. He and Harley had had the same thought. Peter offered a sad smile while his eyes tried to convey everything he couldn’t. _I love you._

Harley knew what Peter was about to do and refused to let him. Harley Keener didn’t know a lot of things, but he knew that a world without Peter Parker wasn’t a world worth being in.

“Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto!” Harley bellowed, using the Eternal One’s ancient name; her forbidden name. In Kitoyota’s culture, to utter the name of an immortal was to call death itself.

“Harley, no!” Peter screamed as the Eternal One changed course. She was upon Harley faster than he had ever seen her move.

In one fluid motion, the katana pierced through the Ironlad suit. The world around Harley came to a halt and all he could hear was the staccato beating of his own heart. Harley’s gaze dragged from the glowing green eyes of the Eternal One down to the blade embedded in his abdomen. He felt no pain, just heat from the metal and a wet sensation as blood seeped out from the wound.

Suddenly, Harley’s hearing came back like someone had flipped a switch, everything too loud and overwhelming. He could make out Peter’s screams over a roaring in his ears. Screams for him. Screams for Harley. In Harley’s peripherals, Peter was blown backwards with a flick of the Eternal One’s hand, magic sending him away. The Eternal One’s smile was absolutely menacing as she grabbed Harley by the shoulder and spoke.

“You call for death,” she whispered into Harley’s ear and pulled him closer, blade sliding a few inches deeper into his torso, “and death tends to answer.”

As the Eternal One stepped back to gloat, Harley mumbled something intelligible.

“What?” The sorceress hissed, bewildered and annoyed to have her moment ruined.

Harley mumbled again, voice still incomprehensible. The Eternal One leaned in closer to place her ear to his lips.

“I said,” blood trickled down the side of Harley’s mouth. He was wheezing now, “I think this belongs to you.”

Harley triumphantly held up the embroidered silk pouch containing the immortal’s heart as the Eternal One shrieked. Harley used the last of his and the suit’s energy to disintegrate the delicate pouch. She stumbled backwards and under the moonlight. Without her heart, nothing tied the Eternal One to this realm, forever banishing her back to Kitoyota.

Harley collapsed to the floor, the Blade of Jade still protruded from both ends of his abdomen since the Eternal One no longer held him upright. His eyes were getting heavy and he shifted his gaze downwards, looking at his knees as he sat on the floor. Harley couldn’t even celebrate vanquishing the immortal for good and saving the world due to the blinding pain as his adrenaline wore off. His breaths were coming out in rasps. _The katana nicked a goddamn lung._

Harley’s eyesight was wavering but he could discern a blurry form approaching. Peter collapsed in front of him as his still healing leg gave out, taking care to not disturb the katana from where it was embedded in Harley. Harley felt webbing staunch the bleeding in his side from his earlier wound. One of Peter’s hands came up to gently cup Harley’s face as Peter raised his head.

“FRIDAY, vitals,” Peter said softly, voice the shell of a whisper. His free hand combed through Harley’s hair with tender care.

Harley didn’t hear FRIDAY’s response. His ears were still ringing and his body already knew the answer.

“Why did you do that,” Peter asked, voice wrecked with grief.

Harley forced himself to open his eyes, staring into Peter’s wide brown ones. “I couldn’t watch you die. A world without Peter Parker is a world I just can’t be in.”

Peter managed to laugh even as tears started to fall from his eyes, hot and heavy. “Then you should have closed your eyes.” Peter paused to wipe the droplets away before he spoke again, “You absolute idiot. I’m the one with super-healing. I could have-”

“I love you,” Harley’s words were slurred and his gaze lowered as he cut Peter off. He didn't want to waste their last moments together arguing.

Both of Peter’s hands came up to grip Harley’s face, forcing the man to look at him once again. “You’re it for me, you know that?” Peter’s voice cracked and Harley’s heart ached, even as its beating stuttered. “You, Harley Keener, are absolutely it for me for the rest of my life.”

It was Harley’s turn to laugh, noise coming out as more of a wheeze. More blood trailed from his lips. “You were it for me too, Pete. Marriage, kids, white picket fence in the countryside - I would have done it all with you.”

Harley might have been crying now too, he couldn’t tell. His suit was wet with blood, Peter’s face was wet with tears and the stone around them was wet as rain gently filtered in from the sewer grate and drain pipes above. The full moon still shone brightly despite the weather, a speck of white hundreds of thousands of miles above their heads. Even rain clouds wouldn’t dare steal the light from two lovers saying goodbye, one last time.

Harley’s heart was aching as much as his body, both protesting his untimely departure. “I wish we had more time.”

A sob wracked Peter’s body as a hand slipped from Harley’s face to wipe away the moisture in his eyes again. “We can still save you.”

“Don’t lie to me Parker, not when I’m dying.” Harley managed a sly grin even though it was getting harder to breathe, harder to move. Maximum effort was going toward staying awake so he could look at Peter's face a little longer.

Peter’s expression was full of sadness, love and adoration as he committed Harley’s features to memory. From his bright blue eyes and lopsided smile to the barely-there scar on Harley’s cheek, Peter wanted to remember it all. He gingerly wiped the blood from Harley’s mouth before Peter leaned in for a kiss. It was chaste and full of emotions. A bittersweet goodbye and a promise to never forget. Peter pulled back and rubbed a thumb across Harley’s cheekbone to wipe away his tears.

“The truth is; I really love you Harley Keener.”

Harley’s heart bled. It bled for Peter Parker. His limbs were numb and his vision was blurry. The ringing in Harley’s ears was getting worse and he knew there wasn’t a lot of time left. Rather than speak, blue met brown and Harley tried to convey everything he possibly could with his gaze. Five years of loving Peter wasn’t enough, but at least it had been perfect.

Peter brought their foreheads together and silently wept. Harley gave one final, raspy exhale and drifted off, looking at the person he loved most as his eyes closed.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed the story (or didn't, that's fair) consider leaving kudos, comments or a bookmark!
> 
> @Spooky-Parker on Tumblr


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